René Daumal Quotes

I am dead because I lack desire,I lack desire because I think I possess.I think I possess because I do not try to give.In trying to give, you see that you have nothing;Seeing that you have nothing, you try to give of yourself;Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are nothing:Seeing that you are nothing, you desire to become;In desiring to become, you begin to live.

~ René Daumal

This place has only three exits, sir: Madness, and Death.

~ René Daumal

Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable.

~ René Daumal

A man who makes a plate or a shirt or a loaf of bread or anything our great great ancestors called a work of art, has no need to try to be sincere; all he can do is practice his craft to the best of his ability. But once he starts making useless things, how can he not be sincere?

~ René Daumal

it is very tempting, when you talk about the events of the past, to impose clarity and order upon what had neither one nor the other.

~ René Daumal

I think I possess because I do not try to give,Trying to give, I see that I have nothing.

~ René Daumal

It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content…it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble, and from babble to confusion.

~ René Daumal

All the means we've been given to stay alert we use to ornament our sleep. If instead of endlessly inventing new ways to make life more comfortable we'd apply our ingenuity to fabricating instruments to jog man out of his torpor!

~ René Daumal

Each time dawn appears, the mystery is there in its entirety.

~ René Daumal